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Handsome Trollope Three-Decker, Highlighting a Culturally and Intellectually Superior American

TROLLOPE, ANTHONY.

THE AMERICAN SENATOR.

(London: Chapman and Hall, 1877). 184 x 127 mm. (7 1/4 x 5"). With the half titles. Three volumes.FIRST EDITION in book form.FINE CONTEMPORARY DARK OLIVE MOROCCO bound for the Earl of Carysfort (with his arms in gilt on center of front covers and with his monogram at foot of spines), backstrips titled in gilt, raised bands flanked by multiple gilt rules, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. Front pastedowns with shelf label and engraved Carysfort bookplate showing Elton Hall. Irwin, p. 11; Sadleir 46; Tinker 2234. Front joint of two volumes with a hint of wear, one leaf with two tiny tears at the top, but A FINE, ATTRACTIVE SET, the text immaculate, and in a lustrous, elegant binding.

This is a three-decker (originally published in installments in the "Temple Bar" magazine between May of 1876 and July of 1877) in which the title character emerges as culturally and intellectually superior to the English. As Irwin says in the preface to her bibliography, Trollope generally treats American characters with considerable affection, and never more so than in the present work. "Here the chief character is an American of high political position, and of great intelligence, who is in England with the avowed purpose of studying her institutions. He never hesitates to say what he thinks, generally to the utter routing of his English companions. Trollope invariably depicts the Senator as the easy victor in these discussions, his listeners sitting speechless and glaring at his audacity, while he is opening his mind on the subject of some of their most cherished traditions."(ST8485)